G GOPNIK ACADEMY
Cross-Chain 101 — Initiate · Lesson 1 of 5

Chain families — EVM, Cosmos, Solana, Bitcoin, Polkadot

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The wallet talks to 10 chains across iter-A through H. Those 10 chains aren't independent — they cluster into families that share consensus models, virtual machines, address formats, and tooling.

Understanding the families is the first step to thinking cross-chain.

The EVM family

Chains: Ethereum L1, XRPL-EVM sidechain, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon, Avalanche, BNB Chain, and ~40 others.

Common traits: - Account-based (no UTXOs). - Secp256k1 + Keccak addresses (0x...). - Solidity smart-contract VM. - ERC-20 token standard. - ERC-721 / ERC-1155 NFT standards. - BIP-44 path m/44'/60'/0'/0/0.

What this means: Your EVM key works on every EVM chain. The same 0xAbC123… address is yours on Ethereum L1, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Polygon — all of them. Different balances per chain, same address.

The wallet's iter-A through C all build on this. iter-A added XRPL-EVM; iter-B added Ethereum L1 bridges; iter-C added the L2 dropdown.

The Cosmos family

Chains: Cosmos Hub, Osmosis, Juno, Kava, Injective, Penumbra, ~100 others.

Common traits: - Tendermint / CometBFT consensus (single-round BFT finality). - Secp256k1 keys + bech32 addresses (per-chain HRP). - Cosmos SDK module-based runtime. - IBC for native cross-chain messaging. - BIP-44 path m/44'/118'/0'/0/0.

What this means: Your Cosmos key works on every Cosmos chain. The same pubkey renders as cosmos1... on the Hub, osmo1... on Osmosis, juno1... on Juno, penumbra1... on Penumbra (sort of — Penumbra uses Decaf377 keys, see iter-H).

The wallet's iter-G shipped Hub + Osmosis; iter-H added Penumbra.

The Solana family

Chains: Solana mainnet, Solana devnet/testnet, Eclipse (Solana VM on Ethereum settlement).

Common traits: - Single-leader consensus (no traditional BFT round). - Ed25519 keys + base58 addresses. - Sealevel parallel VM (multiple txs per slot). - SPL token standard. - BIP-44 path m/44'/501'/0'/0'.

What this means: Solana's a family of one currently. Eclipse runs the same VM on a different consensus.

The wallet's iter-D added Solana mainnet.

The Bitcoin family

Chains: Bitcoin mainnet, Lightning Network, Liquid sidechain, RGB protocol layer, Rootstock.

Common traits: - UTXOs (not account balances). - Secp256k1 keys + bech32 addresses (bc1...). - Limited (Tapscript) smart contracts. - BIP-44/49/84 paths depending on script type.

What this means: Bitcoin and its layer-2s share keys and addresses. Lightning channels use the same Bitcoin key. RGB tokens commit to Bitcoin UTXOs.

The wallet's iter-F added Bitcoin + Lightning + RGB.

The Polkadot family

Chains: Polkadot relay chain, Kusama, AssetHub, Acala, Moonbeam, Astar (parachains).

Common traits: - BABE production + GRANDPA finality. - sr25519 (Schnorr/Ristretto) keys + SS58 addresses. - Substrate runtime. - XCMP for intra-ecosystem messaging. - BIP-44 path m/44'/354'/0'/0'/0' (hardened).

What this means: The wallet's iter-G shipped Polkadot relay only; parachains follow in iter-G+1.

The XRPL family (separate)

XRPL is its own family. Native XRPL has its own consensus, ed25519 keys, base58 addresses (rA...), and the unique XLS standard set. XRPL-EVM is a sidechain that uses the EVM family's keys/addresses.

The wallet treats XRPL as the trunk — everything else is derived from the XRPL mnemonic.

What this means for you

  1. One mnemonic, many keys. Your XRPL seed produces a separate keypair per family via different BIP-44 paths.
  2. Same address across the same family. Send to your 0x... and it lands on whatever EVM chain you specify. Send to your cosmos1... form and it lands on the Hub.
  3. Cross-family requires a bridge. No native protocol moves value between, e.g., Solana and Cosmos. Every cross-family transfer involves a bridge contract.

Next: how assets travel between chains and what "wrapped" really means.